The Coral Kingdom

discovered as they prepared to depart, was nowhere to be found. She had apparently teleported back to Caer Corwell without any farewells.

The morning of the last day had broken a few hours ago with the promise of Corwellian hearths before nightfall. The absence of Pawldo was a persistent cloud, hovering over members of the party at different times but affecting them all deeply.

Brandon rode beside Alicia. He had been silent for much of this day. Now, however, the other companions had trailed out before them, and they could talk privately. It was the moment he had awaited.

'We're well along the path to your father,' he declared. 'I know that-you have to trust me, Princess!'

'We're not even started yet, really,' she replied. 'It seems like an impossible dream-that somewhere at the end of this, we'll sail under the ocean and rescue him.'

'But I know that this is a dream you'll not abandon, and because of that, neither will I!'

She felt a deep sense of relief to have his help in this quest. At the same time, his presence caused a real ambivalence in her feelings. What would be the cost-in his own mind, and to her own sense of debt and honor-of his courage and sacrifice? Certainly she knew that he didn't help her out of any such selfish motives, but could she separate those issues in her own mind, her own heart?

'When we find your father, will you allow me to ask him for your hand?' pressed Brandon.

'I … I don't know!' Alicia replied, suddenly afraid. 'I can't decide that-I can't even think about it-now! You have to understand that!'

Unconsciously Alicia picked up the pace so that she and Brandon drew closer to Hanrald and Brigit, who rode in tandem before them. Their nearness, more than Alicia's reluctance, brought Brandon's conversation to a halt.

The two knights, human man and elven woman, were engaged in serious discussion. Though Hanrald loomed over Brigit on foot, the difference was somewhat lessened on horseback. The earl's war-horse was a heavy steed, capable of charging with the knight in plate armor and the horse fully barded in chain. Yet Brigit had selected for her mount an exceptionally long-legged young mare-naturally of purest white. The horse scampered with such a bounce in her gait that she seemed to float above the road.

'The chain armor has its place for scouting and speed,' Brigit was saying as Alicia and Brandon drew even with them.

'But there's nothing like solid plate for making a charge or mixing it up in a melee,' Hanrald replied.

'True-to a point,' Brigit allowed. 'But then a good shirt of chain can provide nearly the same protection and also give you the speed to cover your back with your weapon, instead of your armor.'

'You'd be talking about better chain than I've seen,' Hanrald said with a rueful laugh. 'Even the best armorsmiths in Callidyrr can't link together anything that'll hold the bite of a northman's axe.'

'And what kind of northman would be striking at your back?' demanded Brandon, in mock offense.

'I'll welcome them at my side now,' replied Hanrald seriously. 'It's no small thing you've done, offering to take a company of foreigners on a quest for their king!'

Alicia flinched. The words were too close to the turmoil she wrestled with so frequently. She turned to Brigit, trying to ignore the men.

'What do you know about the barriers around Evermeet?' the princess asked.

'Very little,' admitted Brigit. 'And neither Erashanoor nor the sages could tell me much, though I spoke with them about it on the evening before our departure.

'There are the things called cyclones,' continued the sister knight. 'But whether they're funnel clouds of intense pressure or great masses of storm I can't tell you. As to the Warders, it seems that their nature has been kept-intentionally-a secret.'

'We'll need spare rigging and sails, extra oars,' Brandon mused. 'All things we can gather in Corwell Town.'

Alicia nodded. 'We'll have no dearth of volunteers, I'm sure-enough to crew your vessel.'

Brandon shook his head. 'My own men will go, to the last hand. Best we sail with an experienced company.'

'There is some hope I can offer,' Brigit added slowly. She didn't sound terribly enthusiastic. 'Erashanoor told me before we left that it's supposed to be possible to reach Evermeet by sea. There were paths laid through the storm belt, and the Warders are not invincible.'

'That is encouraging news,' the princess agreed, her hopes fanned into flame.

'Of course, we don't have any map of those paths, and if the Warders have a weakness, I'm sure I don't know what it is!' Brigit reminded her, but Alicia didn't bother to listen because it wasn't what she wanted to hear.

'My ancestors have long avoided a wide stretch of sea a thousand miles to the west of here,' Brandon said. 'They tell legends of an elven island, dangerous to approach. That's the place you call Evermeet?'

'Yes,' Brigit replied. 'A large realm, hundreds of miles from north to south.'

'With a favoring wind, we might make the voyage in a week or ten days.'

'And without a favoring wind?' inquired the sister knight.

This time it was the northman who shook away the question. 'We can tack around any wind, and we've got oars if it comes to that!'

'It shouldn't take us too long to get everything collected once we get to town. And Brand's crew is there already, plus his longship.'

At her last word, Alicia frowned, realizing that their vessel was one matter in which they must settle for less than ideal preparations. Brandon's own ship, the Gullwing, had been lost in a wreck barely two months earlier. As crown prince, he had commandeered the Coho, the longship of one of his countrymen, but the craft was smaller and, even to Alicia's unpracticed eye, appeared less seaworthy than had Brand's personal ship. The prince had long before commissioned a new longship, but Alicia had seen the vessel under construction little more than a month before. There would still be, she felt certain, much work to do on the new longship.

'The towers of Corwell,' announced the High Queen abruptly, and they all cantered ahead to get a look.

None of the others could make out the shape of the hilltop fortress, but within five minutes, a squat outline began to show through the haze of distance.

'How did you see that from back there?' asked Brandon, who had always believed his own eyesight to be perfect.

'Human senses are not always the most acute. Perhaps I borrowed the eyes of something different-a hawk, say. Or perhaps your young eyes are not as keen as you think they are!'

The towers of Corwell Keep soon stood out in individual relief, and then the stone wall that had begun to replace the castle's wooden palisade came into view. Soon the waters of the firth glittered on the far horizon, stretching like a blue highway into the haze of the far west.

The companions unconsciously picked up their pace, allowing the horses to gobble the miles with long, loping strides. The steeds ran as if they could sense the snug stable and fresh oats in their near future.

As they rode, more and more details became apparent-the buildings dotting the snug town, many puffing small wafts of cooksmoke from their chimneys. . fishing ships, a trading galleon, and a pair of longer vessels as well, dotting the placid waters of Corwell Harbor.

And then Brandon gave a shout of triumph that took them all by surprise. The northman's face was locked in an expression of fierce joy. Alicia stared at the Prince of Gnarhelm and then followed his eyes to the firth.

Two longships in the harbor? She squinted, recognizing first the Coho by her battered hull and limp, swaybacked look. The other vessel was anchored just beyond, and though she was the same type of ship, she was as different from the Coho as a galleon was from a canoe.

The second longship was more than half again as long as the Coho, and her hull planks were so clean that they gleamed. Her gunwales were long and straight, and a proud figurehead rose high above the prow. The ship was quite simply the grandest vessel Alicia had ever seen.